Police officers' personal moral is "continuing to drop" according to a new report published today (August 30).

The Police Federation Pay and Morale report found that officers overstretched forces and growing demand on forces is resulting in officers reporting low personal morale.

A total of 30,557 officers took part in the survey between April 18 and June 9 this year.

Some of the key findings in the report included pay satisfaction, personal morale and fairness of pay.

Steve White, Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) said: “Officers do a heroic job as evidenced by the events of the past year, yet they feel undervalued and under pressure.

"We know that officers enjoy tremendous support from the British public as a whole, which is a source of enormous pride for them.

"But something has to give, and unfortunately the evidence shows that it is these officers’ personal welfare, as they struggle to meet rising demand with dwindling resources and 21,000 officers fewer than 2010."

Police officers have responded to a pay and morale survey.

Of the officers that responded, 72.5 per cent said that they felt financially worse off now than they did five years.

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A total of 70.5 per cent who lived in their force area said that the overall cost of living that area was either expensive or very expensive.

Just 42.6 per cent of respondents said they had enough money to cover all of their essentials every month.

Mr White said officers were now finding it difficult to put food on the table for their families.

“At a time when we have never needed the police more, with heightened threats almost weekly, we have many officers who are finding it hard to put food on the table for their families and are resorting to welfare schemes," he said.

How often do you have enough money to cover all of your essentials

Police Federation Pay and Morale survery 2017

Contributing to the low morale of officers was the fairness of pay.

86.5 per cent of officers who responded said that did not feel fairly paid considering the stresses and strains of their job.

Meanwhile, just under two thirds of respondents said that were dissatisfied with their basic pay and 72 per cent said they were dissatisfied with their overall renumeration.

However, there was a small increase in the amount of respondents who said they were proud to be in the force with 65 per cent agreeing compared to 61 per cent against.

Responding to the report, Detective Chief Constable Andy McDyer of Humberside Police said that there is things that the force can do to help the work-life balance of officers.

He said: "Today’s Police Federation report highlights a range of issues that police forces are dealing with across the country.

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"We know about the changing nature of crime, with new areas such as cyber-crime increasing hugely in the past few years. There has also been a well-documented national increase in calls for service. Both of these issues have impacted on workloads and are set against a backdrop of reductions in numbers of police.

"However, despite this challenging context, there are things that we can do to help our people and to positively impact upon morale, work-life balance and overall satisfaction within Humberside Police.

Chief Constable of Humberside Police, Lee Freeman.

"Since his arrival in May, for example, our new Chief Constable, Lee Freeman has spent a huge amount of time in direct contact with officers on the front line, listening to them and hearing from them first-hand about what we can do to improve their situation. He’s encouraged all leaders to do the same and this is helping us to identify solutions.

"One example is that officers have consistently told us that the current shift patterns are at the centre of their problems with work-life balance and health and well-being – which are two of the biggest reasons for low morale, according to the survey. And so we’re listening to that and we’re working with those officers to devise a better shift pattern that will improve the lives of officers, and ultimately provide a better service to the public."

Mr McDyer added that Humberside Police would be introducing a Northbank Commander and Southbank Commander as well as adding a planned addition of 215 police officers.